The Full Story
By Warren L. Warren Haley, Jr., Computer Training World Faculty and Business Development, Naptheon Learning Solutions,
A Subsidiary of Newport News Shipbuilding, email: haley_lw@naptheon.com
Blended Learning is using a combination of the right learning delivery methods to maximize the learning potential while minimizing the cost. This is an important training delivery component in the portfolio of learning options because certain subject matter favors one delivery method over another. For example, a management course on human interaction would best be done in the classroom, while learning principles of computer networking can be done effectively using computer-based training (CBT). In addition, the audiences in the example are suited well for the delivery methods cited. The trainer needs to have these options, and as many other options as possible, to achieve the objective of delivering the right training to the right people at the right time using the right method.
The Blended Learning approach is no different from delivery methods in that there are challenges and drawbacks. The biggest challenge is still the learning culture of the audience, which is based on the learning culture of the organization. Many people still do not feel comfortable learning something using CBT or on the Web; they think that the only way you learn is to go to a classroom, where there is a teacher. Also, many managers will allow their employees to be away from the office to be in a classroom, but are less tolerant of the same employees sitting at their own desks doing something on the Web for more than a half hour.
The biggest drawback of blended learning is that it uses training delivery methods in addition to classroom training that need to be accepted and appreciated. This problem is disappearing rapidly due to changes in corporate culture and younger people moving into positions of corporate responsibility. So the next big challenge will be the supply of competent instructional designers able to create blended training solutions, based on realistic needs and constraints, rather than tradition. To meet this challenge, there must be corporate support and resources for the instructional designers.
A blended solution has always been here by my definition, so it will always be here. For example, in school we have teachers in the classroom (now called instructor-led training or ILT), that gave reading assignments (another way of learning), and sometimes conducted hands-on labs (yet another element in the blend). The 'e' in eLearning is a relatively recent innovation, offering tremendous opportunity with far-reaching implications, but it is still just another way to deliver learning to a student. This learning delivery method may never be the best way to learn certain subjects for certain people. The blend is here to stay.
Computer Training World IS Blended Learning. Come experience it for yourself by registering online for at http://www.influent.com/ctw2001 and click on the red Register button.
